Oak Hill: Aerial Views 1966-1969

These two aerial photographs, taken between 1966 and 1969, show Oak Hill as suburban development was encroaching close to its borders. Richard Fitzhugh built Oak Hill circa 1790 on his inherited portion (2524 acres) of the Ravensworth plantation. Washington lawyer Edward Howrey and his wife Jane bought Oak Hill in 1935 and renovated the house for a country home. They sold in 1968 to a development company, builder of the Oak Hill subdivision.

Aerial Photo 1. Queen Elizabeth Blvd runs horizontally in the foreground. Little River Turnpike (LRT) runs horizontally across the top of the photo, and its interchange with the Beltway I-495) is at top right. Northern Virginia Community College's Annandale campus is under construction: the large area of cleared land in the upper center adjacent to LRT.

Aerial Photo 2. Queen Elizabeth Blvd runs horizontally in the foreground, ending near Private Lake in the lower right corner. Braeburn Dr angles into and dead ends at the northwest corner of the cleared Oak Hill land.

By 1970, houses had been built or were under construction on all sides of Oak Hill, which was saved from development on its present reduced tract of less than three acres.

Aerial photos courtesy of Amanda Scheetz

Animation (narrated): Growth and Development in Braddock District, 1940 to 2004

Growth and shifts in population and suburban development in Fairfax County are driving forces in the creation and continuing evolution of Braddock District.

The narrated animation traces the district's creation and several border changes, and the spread of development within Braddock District from 1940 to 2004.

The analysis was developed from the county's tax assessment database. Because the database contains only existing properties, extinct properties such as Ossian Hall, which was demolished in 1959 to clear the way for building new homes, do not appear in the years when they still existed.

Transcript of narration: Braddock District, Fairfax County, Virginia, is in the Washington, DC Metro Area - one of nine Fairfax County supervisory districts. A Look Back At Braddock tells the history of the area within the district's changing borders. Established in 1968, Braddock's boundaries have altered four times, as the county rebalanced population among all districts, after each 10-year federal census. A major chapter in Braddock's history was the rapid change from farms and small villages to a densely populated suburban community. Starting in the 1940s, during World War II, developers built subdivisions on the district's eastern edge, near Annandale, to house families of the expanding federal workforce. About 1960, the pace of development accelerated dramatically, when the new Capital Beltway opened access to areas farther west. By 1985, Braddock District was nearly filled with homes, schools, parks and commercial centers. And by 2004, the few remaining isolated parcels had also been developed. The map shows residential development in orange; commercial-industrial is blue; education and other public facilities are black.

Source: Animated map developed by A Look Back At Braddock volunteer and GIS specialist John Codd from source data provided Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration

Slide Show: Development in Kings Park

A series of aerial images from 1937 to 2002 shows how development changed the area of Kings Park near the intersections of Braddock, Rolling and Burke Lake roads.

Courtesy John Browne; developed from aerial photographs provided by Fairfax County GIS & Mapping Department and 2002 satellite image by United States Geological Survey.

Memories: Rita Rogers

Rita Rogers moved with her husband and young sons into the Lake Braddock subdivision in 1971. She remembers the early years of the community.

Memories: Elizabeth Dove

Elizabeth Dove remembers Braddock Road in the 1930s, describing the neighborhood, home ownership, and daily life.

Oral History: Bill Wrench

Bill Wrench came to the Braddock District in 1957 as the Director of the Economic and Industrial Development Committee (later, the Economic Development Authority). Lack of development in the county surprised him then, but his job was to integrate industrial development with residential growth. In 1960, he left the government and opened his own business, an oil distributorship and then a gas station. His family became part of the new Ravensworth Farm subdivision. Bill Wrench looks at roads, gas station management, and what brings people to live in the area.

Oral History: Robert Hunt

Robert Hunt moved to the Kings Park neighborhood in the late 1950s. He became president of the Kings Park Civic Association and later, a member of the Fairfax County School Board. He discusses family life, community growth, and his memories of world events.

Oral History: Clara Greinke

Clara Greinke, her husband and three sons moved to the Braddock District in 1960. Roads were narrow and often still dirt-covered. She notes how the area has changed from a woodland rural countryside dotted with ponds for fishing and skating. Active in civic organizations, Clara Greinke remembers working to preserve a strong community as the area developed.

Oral History: Elly Doyle

Elly Doyle moved to Fairfax County during the early 1950s. A civic activist and former member and chairman of the Fairfax County Park Authority Board, she traces the development of the activities of county parks and her role in that growth.

Oral History: Edward Carr

Edward Carr took over his father's development firm,
a major corporation in Northern Virginia. He describes the acquisition, planning, development, and home building which his family initiated in the district.